


The 50 step plan

by StillNotMeShh



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:28:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29297373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StillNotMeShh/pseuds/StillNotMeShh
Summary: “And I told you, I’m not  good at Spanish and it would be best if you could do it by yourself.”“Ok, I’ll be honest with you, Olivia… I’m not happy about working with you, either. You arrived late, you are difficult to work with, and you seem like you don’t care about this project that way I do. I want to help you, I can help you, but only if you want to accept the help… I’m not the one who’s about to fail.”
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Olivia Benson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23
Collections: Barson Valentine's Day Collection 2021





	The 50 step plan

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> So I chose this prompt because it allowed me to play a little bit with the character and recently I been in a "young Rafael Barba" mood so I created this!  
> Hopefully I fullfilled the expectations of the one who requested this fic.  
> Oh! and of course I included spanish because idk it's my fav thing to include in fics, it makes them more personal for me.

“Shit! I’m late!” Rafael said as he raninto the building as fast as he could when the bell rang. He knew how much Mrs. López hated when her students were late.

He finally made it to his classroom and sat in the middle next to Alex as usual.

“Hey, Rafi!” His friend extended his hand to do their famous handshake. “Running late?”  
“No. I just love to run to class. Of course I’m late!” One of the things Rafael had since he was a kid was his famous sarcastic responses followed by dramatic eye rolls. “Where’s Mrs. López by the way?” He asked while trying to steady his breathing.  
“I dunno, man, do I look like I live with her or something? Wow, wow, wow… there’s Jo. I bet she’ll be head over heels for me by the end of the year, Rafi.”

The biggest difference between Rafael and Alex was that Rafael took this class for the credits knowing he was getting excellent grades and Alex… well, he was there to impress the girls with his fluent Spanish.

Before Rafael had the chance to answer, their teacher entered the room and everyone took their place.

“ _Buenos días clase_ ,”,  
“ _Buenos días_ , Mrs. López,” the students responded in unison. Of course, it didn’t sound as nice as it should. Most of the kids were taking the class because they thought it would be easy, but they learned the pronunciation was quite a challenge.

“Sit down, please.” As they did, she started writing on the board behind her.  
“Look, look, look,” Alex whispered to Rafael, who was focused on taking out his notebooks. “ _Tu noviecita_ … future Mrs. Barba at the door”  
“Benson. You are late, again”  
“Sorry, Mrs. López, it won’t happen again I promise”  
“Sit down, _rápido_.”

Olivia Benson just entered the room, late as always and sat at the back as usual.  
Rafael couldn’t take his eyes off of her while she was taking her place and of course Alex took the chance to smack him in the head.  
“Careful, you are drooling, Rafi.”

Rafael had been in love with Olivia since forever. The first time they met was probably 10 years ago, but he remembered as if it was yesterday. He was playing with Alex and Eddie as always, they were “ _Los tres mosqueteros de Jerome Avenue_ ”. It was all good until he bumped into someone a little bit taller than him and nearly hit his head on one of the benches.

“Hey! Am I invisible to you?” Rafael didn’t know how to react or what to say. The girl in front of him had beautiful brown eyes and her hair tied up in a high ponytail which made her soft curls look beautiful. He was sure he had never seen her around before and he was even more intrigued about her.  
“Hey! Rafi, are you ok?” Eddie offered him a hand since he was still lying on the floor looking at the girl who was now confused by his attitude.  
“Hellooo there, miss!” Of course Alex had to intervene. “I’m Alex, and you are..?”  
“The girl who’s gonna punch you if you keep looking at me with that weird face.”  
Eddie and Rafael shared a laugh because it was the first time someone threatened Alex to punch him, and considering it was a girl who threatened him made everything more hilarious.

This happened during the summer, and happily for Rafael, she was a new student recently transferred to the same school as him. That’s how he found out her name was Olivia Benson.  
She was different from the other girls her age, and also one of the few who never giggled and blushed at Alex’s Spanish flirting. In fact, Rafael’s friend had stopped trying after she nearly punched him and noticed his best friend was in love with her.

Time went by and Rafael was no longer shorter than her. They were almost the same height and he considered that a victory. He had a 50-steps plan to make Olivia fall in love with him. Growing taller was step one so now he only had forty nine steps more to go. He also considered that a victory.  
Olivia had only grown more beautiful. Her hair was longer and no longer tied up in a high pony. She was also very athletic and smart, and Rafael couldn’t take his eyes off of her.  
Of course his friends teased him at every chance they had and that sometimes made Rafael feel uncomfortable.  
He never dared to say much to her- casual smiles and nods in the hallways or at the bodega if they crossed paths ,but nothing more.

“So, as you may have seen on the board, this week I’ll assign you all a project. You’ll have to write an essay about what you want to do in the future: your expectations, desires, etc. it has to be in Spanish of course, and then, just to make sure you are not cheating, you will have to present it to the entire class.”  
At the last part, there was some booing from the students.  
“For this project you’ll have a partner… and I will assign them. You’ll be paired up in alphabetical order without exceptions.”

Rafael and Alex knew they weren’t going to be paired up together due to their last names, but that didn’t seem to bother Alex so much. He had already made some calculations and he was going to be paired up with one of the girls he was currently flirting with.

“Barba, you’ll work with Benson.”

Benson?! As in Olivia Benson?! Rafael was panicking but he had to pretend everything was perfectly fine and ignore Alex’s current teasing.

“Barba?”  
“Yes. Mrs. López?”  
“Did you hear me? You’ll work with Benson.”  
“Oh, he heard you perfectly well, Mrs. López.” Rafael glanced at Alex, who was now laughing at him.  
“I expect you to help her with the Spanish considering your advantage. She needs a good grade, otherwise she’ll fail. ¿ _Me entiendes_ , Benson?” Olivia just nodded at the teacher, who proceeded to assign the students their partners.

At the end of the class,Olivia was one of the first ones to leave and Rafael had to run after her so he could discuss some details about the project.

“Olivia! Olivia!”  
“Go get her, Romeo!”  
“Shut up, Alex!” He said, still running. “Olivia!”  
“What?!” She finally stopped and he nearly fell flat on his face because of his speed, but managed to stay up on his feet.  
“The project…”  
“What about it?”  
“We- we are together… I mean, we are partners. We have to work on it. It’s due to next week…”  
“And you want me to help?” He couldn’t believe her words. Was she expecting him to do the project on his own? “You heard the teacher, I’m not good at Spanish. You are, so why bother?”  
“Because it’s how it’s supposed to be!”  
“Whoa! Calm down. Ok… I have practice after class, so can you meet me at 5pm in the Library?”  
“Umm… sure… I mean I have some-“  
“Perfect. See you, Barba.”

She left and didn’t even bother to ask if he had something else to do! He didn’t, but still!

At 5pm sharp, Rafael was waiting outside the library for Olivia. He was not surprised when she arrived almost 45 minutes late, but said nothing in order to avoid further conflicts.

“So… what do you want to do in the future?” Rafael asked to break the ice.  
“What do you care?”  
“You know this is for the project, right?”  
“And I told you, I’m not good at Spanish and it would be best if you could do it by yourself.”  
“Ok, I’ll be honest with you, Olivia… I’m not happy about working with you, either. You arrived late, you are difficult to work with, and you seem like you don’t care about this project that way I do. I want to help you, I can help you, but only if you want to accept the help… I’m not the one who’s about to fail.”  
Olivia was taken aback by his words he had known Rafael for awhile now and he was a sweet kid. She never expected him to call her out for her actions, but she kind of deserved it. So, instead of fighting back, she chose her words wisely and accepted the fact that she needed the help. Especially if she wanted to pass this course.  
“I’m sorry…”  
“What?”  
“I said I’m sorry… is that so hard to believe?”  
“Umm…”  
“Don’t answer that. I- I promise I will help… I will try my best but don’t expect much.”

After they laughed for a while, it seemed like they were finally working out their differences. Rafael discovered Olivia wanted to be a cop-she wanted to help the ones in need and protect the victims.

“Ok, so you have to say: _yo quiero ser policía_.”  
Olivia looked at Rafael before trying to say the words he just said and of course she was worried because she didn’t want to look like a fool. “ _Yo… quero ser… polcia_.”  
“ _Quiero_ ,” he said trying to correct her pronunciation  
“ _Quero_.”  
“No no. Listen carefully: _quie_ …” he knew it was not easy for her and tried to help her as much as he could.  
“ _Quie_ …”  
“ok… now: _Ro_.”  
“ _Ro_ ”  
“Perfect! Now everything together. _Quiero_.”  
“ _Quero_.”  
“Let’s move on, ok? We’ll review this later.”

Olivia was frustrated. She was not improving, and even though Rafael was being a saint and super patient with her, she was not happy with how everything was going.

“Ok, so, for this next part… it’d be something like: _yo quiero ayudar a los que lo necesitan._ ”  
“Again with the _quero_?”  
He slightly chuckled at her comment but offered her a reassuring smile. “It's _quiero_ , but we can work on that. I think the main problem with your pronunciation is the Rs. I completely understand, though, it’s difficult for non native speakers. I’m kinda used to hearing my name being mispronounced...You know what will help? We have this old tongue-twister for the kids…”  
“Are you saying I’m a kid?” She said while raising one eyebrow at him.  
“No, no. No. I mean, your speaking is…”  
“Toddler level.”  
“I- yes. But hey! I promise this will help.” She doubted at first, but then nodded. “Ok, so I will say it first and then you’ll try it. Ok?”  
“Ok, I’m ready.”  
“ _R con R guitarra, R con R barril. Rápido corren los trenes, rápido el ferrocarril._ ”

She blinked in response, trying to process, or at least understand, whatever Rafael had just said.

“Yeah, I don’t think so, Rafael.”  
“Cmon! I’ll help you! It’s easy, Liv. You just need to do it slowly at first and practice every day.” When he said Liv she thought it was the sweetest thing he had ever said to her, it was cute.  
“You promise you won’t make fun of me?”  
He raised one hand, “I, Rafael Barba, solemnly swear that I won’t make fun of you.”

They spent the next couple hours working on Olivia’s pronunciation and she promised she was going to practice her Rs every day until the day of their presentation.  
And it worked! The day of the presentation, she made a couple of mistakes, but the teacher was really impressed with her improvement. Olivia was extremely happy and grateful toRafael for his help.

“Ok, class, _pueden irse_. See you next week!”

Everyone started gathering their things and leaving to their next class. Rafael was talking to Alex, or more like Alex was teasing Rafael, but they were almost the last ones in the room.

“Hey, Romeo, someone is waiting for you.” Rafael turned his head to look at whoever Alex was pointing and saw Olivia standing near the entrance. He gathered his things and walked towards her.  
“I’ll leave you guys alone. Good luck, Romeo. _Chau chau_ , Olivia.” Alex said with a smirk on his face before leaving them alone.  
“Sooo… umm… I just wanted to thank you… for everything. Mrs. López said I was going to pass and I owe you for that.”  
Rafael was blushing a little, but he was really proud of her. She really practiced and did everything he said would help, so she really didn’t owe him anything.  
“You’re welcome! I’m really glad I could help with that.” He offered her a smile. “Told you the _ferrocarril_ could help.”  
“Yeah… I will never use that one again.”  
“We are a good team, huh?”  
“Yeah, we should work together more often, Raf.” she said with a smile on her face while putting her arm around his shoulders and walking out of the class with him.

With that gesture, he was sure he had checked at least 10 boxes out of his 50-step plan. Maybe he didn’t need a plan after all.

**Author's Note:**

> What do you guys think? did you try to say the tongue twister? hehe. We learn those when we are like 5-6 in school and even for us, it's hard.  
> Idk why but I feel like young Olivia was kinda bratty. I tried writting other stories but I always go back to the same ksksksks.  
> Let me know what you guys think!
> 
> PD. Thanks Bri for the beta!


End file.
